Monsignor gets 3 to 6 years

Wednesday

Jul 25, 2012 at 12:01 AMJul 25, 2012 at 10:42 AM

PHILADELPHIA - Monsignor William J. Lynn, the first Roman Catholic official in the United States to be convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision, was sentenced to three to six years in prison yesterday.

PHILADELPHIA — Monsignor William J. Lynn, the first Roman Catholic official in the United States to be convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision, was sentenced to three to six years in prison yesterday.

“You knew full well what was right, Monsignor Lynn, but you chose wrong,” said Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina as she imposed the sentence, which was just short of the maximum of 31/2 to seven years.

Lynn, 61, a former cardinal’s aide, was found guilty on June 22 of one count of endangering a child after a three-month trial that revealed efforts over decades by the Philadelphia archdiocese to play down accusations of child sexual abuse and avoid scandal.

Lynn served as secretary for clergy for the 1.5-million-member archdiocese from 1992 to 2004, recommending priest assignments and investigating abuse complaints.During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he had shielded predatory priests, sometimes transferring them to unaware new parishes, and lied to the public to avoid negative publicity and lawsuits.

In a three-minute statement before he heard his sentence, Lynn said: “I have been a priest for 36 years, and I have done the best I can. I have always tried to help people.”

He said he respected the verdict of the jury, and he apologized to the abuse victim in the case at the center of his conviction.

Last week, the defense team asked the judge to spare Lynn from prison and instead sentence him to probation and work-release or house arrest. They argued in a memorandum that a long prison sentence would be “merely cruel and unusual,” and “would serve no purpose at all.”

But prosecutors urged the judge to impose the maximum penalty. They told the court last week that the gravity of Lynn’s crime — giving known sexual predators continued access to children, causing lifelong anguish and damage to some — was “off the charts.” They wrote that Lynn had refused to accept responsibility and had an “apparent lack of remorse for anyone but himself.”

Lynn’s lawyers have promised to appeal the conviction, saying that the child-endangerment law at the time of the events in question did not apply to supervisors, and that the judge erred in allowing testimony about Lynn’s overseeing of priests who were accused of sexual abuse outside the statute of limitations.